How to get more smoke into a thick Port butt?


 
J

James Otto

New member
I just did two pork butts total weight was about 25lbs, smoked it for about 14 hours. It came out great, everyone like it, but I alway criticize myself. I never seem to get the smokey flavor out of my pulled pork except on the bark and in the ring. This time I used 3 chunks of apple 1 chunk for cherry and a chunk of hickory. It had a good smoke ring, and others say they tasted the smoke, but I'd like more. What am I doing wrong?
 
Hi James,

One simple method is to cut the two large butts in half and have four smaller butt roasts. It yields more surface area for rub and more surface area for smoke adhesion. Cooks faster too. Voilà!

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I wouldn't cut them in half.
But if you want more smoke flavor, cut back on your fruit woods, and use more Hickory. I use 70 to 75 percent hickory and the rest apple.
Apple is VERY mild.
 
Brian's right. Use a lot of hickory. You could also mix it up with oak or pecan as well since they're both somewhat milder but will smoke a lot longer than fruitwood does. I've found out that fruitwood smoke will often dissapate too soon and it's hard to make sure you've still got good smoke after you've hit the sack. Fruitwood is just not dense enough to smoke for a long time.
 
Don't know what kind of oak you've been using but my oak and hickory have always smoked on the strong side. Agree with the fruit woods being a milder smoke


Originally posted by Dave Russell:
Brian's right. Use a lot of hickory. You could also mix it up with oak or pecan as well since they're both somewhat milder but will smoke a lot longer than fruitwood does. I've found out that fruitwood smoke will often dissapate too soon and it's hard to make sure you've still got good smoke after you've hit the sack. Fruitwood is just not dense enough to smoke for a long time.
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Originally posted by paul h:
Don't know what kind of oak you've been using but my oak and hickory have always smoked on the strong side. Agree with the fruit woods being a milder smoke


<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dave Russell:
Brian's right. Use a lot of hickory. You could also mix it up with oak or pecan as well since they're both somewhat milder but will smoke a lot longer than fruitwood does. I've found out that fruitwood smoke will often dissapate too soon and it's hard to make sure you've still got good smoke after you've hit the sack. Fruitwood is just not dense enough to smoke for a long time.
Click to expand...
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

My understanding is that red oak species are typically little stronger than the white oak species, but hickory has a stronger flavor, at least to some degree. When I think about it though, probably not as much as it's reputation since if cooking with wood you have to use a little more hickory than oak. None of the nutwoods are gonna be as mild as fruitwood though, if simply for the duration of the smoke.

All that said though, wood moisture, the cook's know-how and work ethic, and the kind of pit used is just as important in getting good smoke flavor. Here in the midsouth good bbq is often synonomous with and touted by traditional joints as "Hickory Smoked BBQ". Not nearly always, but sometimes those places won't use anything BUT hickory to COOK AND smoke their bbq, even chicken and ribs. In the big pits with a hot fire that burns cleanly, 100% hickory is no problem and yields fantastic results with no oversmoking. Fruitwood would simply drive the pitmaster nuts for the short life of the coals. (Mike Mills uses applewood in his restaurant but his pits are gas-fired.)

Back to the OP though, as long as he doesn't have heavy white smoke, he shouldn't have any issue with oversmoking pork butts, no matter if it's nutwood or fruitwood. If I start to get bad smoke after having to take the lid off for whatever reason, I'll simply open the door and remove the offending wood chunk since it's nearly always just one of them. I'll use six wood chunks for butts and brisket, three buried and three on top. That might seem like a lot, but the water pan seems to "wash" the smoke somewhat and make the flavor lighter than if cooking dry.
 
DAve, would be an interesting test to see if you get more smoke flavor from a dry foiled pan versus pan with water.
 
Originally posted by paul h:
DAve, would be an interesting test to see if you get more smoke flavor from a dry foiled pan versus pan with water.
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No queastion about it in my mind. The difference is probably best noticed when smoking chicken and I first heard what a water smoker does by Ray Lampe, aka "Dr. BBQ", when he described the steam as "washing the smoke". In case you're wondering, no, he's like Harry Soo in that neither of them are fans of water pans. Myron Mixon and others are, though. I think it depends on the cooker and the meat volume/cooker capacity ratio. Of course, to me it just makes sense to use water in a water smoker if you want low-n-slow temps.
 
It's been said that if you're exposed a lot to the smoke, say on a long smoke, you probably won't taste/smell the smoke on the meat anytime soon. Might be a myth, maybe not.

I've found that when I do a long cook on the Bullet or BGE and taste the meat the same day I taste pretty much no smoke, but if I taste the reheated meat that next day the smoke flavor's there.
 
Originally posted by John Hicks:
It's been said that if you're exposed a lot to the smoke, say on a long smoke, you probably won't taste/smell the smoke on the meat anytime soon. Might be a myth, maybe not.

I've found that when I do a long cook on the Bullet or BGE and taste the meat the same day I taste pretty much no smoke, but if I taste the reheated meat that next day the smoke flavor's there.
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Great point, John. Surprised somebody didn't already raise that issue.

I wouldn't say that I can't taste the smoke the first day, but it definately tastes smokier the next day. For this reason I always try to stay out of the smoke during a cook, but no matter how hard I try, it still tastes a lot better to me the next day.
 
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